News: 844/X at Sundance

Ballets Russes - Dan Geller and Dayna Goldfine

Media 100 has announced use of the Company’s 844/X and Media 100 i advanced media systems by Geller/Goldfine production to complete the feature-length documentary Ballets Russes. The two-hour film, a Special Screening selection at this year’s 2005 Sundance Film Festival, was produced by Dan Geller and Dayna Goldfine, who made the most of the real-time editing and multi-layer compositing features in 844/X to creatively bring together interview and historical footage with 2D archival stills.

From the viewpoint of the performers who danced under the name Ballets Russes, the project traces the history and legacy of the famous companies that transformed ballet into a vibrant and modern art form. The story is relayed via intimate interviews, voiceover narration performed by actress Marian Seldes and a combination of video material (modern-day DVCam footage shot in 16:9 and transfers of 1930s and 1940s motion picture footage) and several hundred black-and-white photographs.

Initial editing on the project began five years ago on a Media 100 i system. After adding an 844/X to the pipeline, Geller/Goldfine re-acquired the content at 10-bit uncompressed and began work on one of its biggest challenges: how to use the many black-and-white images in a way that would convey color, movement and a flavor of the dance.

“Historic documentaries often draw heavily from still images, and, with a story the very essence of which is motion, it was essential for us to find a treatment for the Ballets Russes photos in addition to pans and zooms,” Geller said. “We wanted to use the stills to link our verité sequences, on-screen commentary and performance material, and 844/X made the difference in being able to try various combinations and re-combinations of the vintage photos and the footage ‘live’ in real time. This kind of on-the-fly trial-and-error creative experimentation would have been virtually impossible in any other system.”

Among the unique effects designed in 844/X for the film is one in which the photographic material comes to life when layered over screened-back video footage. Used liberally throughout the documentary, the effect combines geometrics, blend mode, blur channels and variable color correction applied in the 844/X simultaneously in real time. A finely tuned balance between blend and opacity and other degrees of variation, achieved with instant viewing in 844/X, resulted in black-and-white transparencies that look like antique movie posters with light and movement streaming through them.

In addition to the editing and effects completed in 844/X, cutting was also done using Media 100 i systems. For the sound mix, Geller/Goldfine exported an OMF file from the Media 100 i system, and then re-imported a mixed-down stereo file back into 844/X to output the final theatrical master. The documentary will screen at Sundance in HDCam.

Geller/Goldfine Productions has produced, directed, and edited feature-length documentaries for theatrical, broadcast, and home video release since 1986. The duo’s critically acclaimed multi-character narratives include FROSH: Nine Months in a Freshman Dorm, Isadora Duncan: Movement from the Soul, Kids of Survival: The Art and Life of Tim Rollins and K.O.S., Now and Then: From FROSH to Seniors and Seniors: Four Years in Retrospect.

Ballets Russes covers more than 80 years in the lives of the revolutionary artists and long-neglected artistic pioneers who elevated ballet from mere music hall divertissement to a truly collaborative art form. The film chronicles a long and rich history that harks back to Serge Diaghilev’s premiere of the Ballet Russe touring company at Manhattan’s Century Theatre in 1916. The documentary uses interviews and scenes with over 30 surviving members of the Ballets Russes companies, as well as rare motion picture performance footage, clips from Hollywood movies and "home movies," letters, diaries, journals and other archival materials, to trace the story of the companies and the lives of the individuals who danced within them.